To Read Option, or Not

[Paintrain]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

I definitely don't blame him either. He needs to protect himself. But by doing so it limits the effectiveness of the read option. Now that we're officially out of the race I'd like to see it phased out and just work on his pocket passing.

In addition to protecting himself, I wonder if there isn't the slightest bit of 'I'll get what's there and get out of bounds' rather than actively looking for creases and ways to get upfield with it.

On the all-22 there have been more than a couple of plays where it looks like there was more yardage vertically than horizontally but his aiming point has always been to the sideline rather than looking to cut upfield.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by Paintrain

In addition to protecting himself, I wonder if there isn't the slightest bit of 'I'll get what's there and get out of bounds' rather than actively looking for creases and ways to get upfield with it.

On the all-22 there have been more than a couple of plays where it looks like there was more yardage vertically than horizontally but his aiming point has always been to the sideline rather than looking to cut upfield.

I definitely think so. He's simply not attacking defenses like he did last year. Defenses know this and will gladly let him have the shorter runs all day and focus on Morris instead.

[skinsguy]

Part of me thinks the coaches want Robert to run more with it so he has more chances to work on his sliding techniques when he's scrambling. I've seen RGIII improve greatly over the last couple of games with his sliding. But, the other part of me thinks that doesn't make sense. The coaches want the players to win the games so everybody keeps their jobs - unless of course Shanahan doesn't want to stay in which he is in evaluation mode and just doesn't care so much about the outcome of the games. I don't know. All I know is, four more games and the nightmare can end.

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Paintrain

In addition to protecting himself, I wonder if there isn't the slightest bit of 'I'll get what's there and get out of bounds' rather than actively looking for creases and ways to get upfield with it. He's gotten the worst of both worlds: hit a ton of times without the big runs to show for it. But at least he's kept himself healthy.

On the all-22 there have been more than a couple of plays where it looks like there was more yardage vertically than horizontally but his aiming point has always been to the sideline rather than looking to cut upfield.

Yeah. The athleticism is back, but Griffin is pretty clearly lost in a dead space right now between understanding how to protect himself and executing a play when it's there for him.

The assumption that the coaches, myself, and everyone else was a bit off on was that when the read-option could be used as an efficient, ball-moving playcall again, the whole offense would return to previous levels. But it's clear that the league wide defensive adjustment has been the same as it has been to any other type of run: we'll let you have it, but we're going to keep our safeties and linebackers back and force you to nickel and dime us down the field.

Teams have done a good job of making the Redskins a between-the-tackles offense this season. They've been pretty good between the tackles, but there are no big plays that can be generated by the current personnel if you keep everything inside the box.